More heat on the reclusive Malaysian financier alleged to be behind 1MDB’s web of MONEY-laundering: his private jet was grounded in Singapore. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s PM is grappling with problems of his own.

Jho Low dropped out of sight nearly two years ago, after the billion-dollar graft scandal surrounding Malaysian state fund 1MDB surfaced into the public domain.

Since then, two banks – Banca della Svizzera Italiana, or BSI, and Falcon Private Bank – have been sent packing from Singapore for laundering 1MDB MONEY without question. A handful more including UBS, DBS and Standard Chartered have been sanctioned.

There have been no sightings of Low, despite rumors alternatively claiming the financier is holed up in Taiwan, China, his native Penang or Thailand.

Jet Grounded at Seletar

The only tangible sign of him recently is a New Zealand court case brought by Low and his family. The Lows are seeking to stop the U.S. from grabbing pricey assets that prosecutors allege were bought with 1MDB’s money.

They won a small victory last month by shifting trustees from Rothschild Private Bank to a Caymans-based entity.

NOW a long-range private jet of Low’s was impounded at Seletar Airport in Singapore, according to «Sarawak Report». The jet was grounded by U.S. officials, who allege that Low purchased the machine with $700 million in 1MDB FUNDS.

Low Hiding in China?

The blog, which has reported extensively on the 1MDB scandal, said Low’s yacht has been moored in a Phuket yacht marina in recent months, after criss-crossing the South China Sea for roughly one year.

Low himself is hiding in China, the blog claimed, without citing where it got the information, elaborating or otherwise substantiating the claim.

1MDB’s ties to Abu Dhabi, which played a key role in the laundering scandal, are also coming into sharper focus. Malaysia and Abu Dhabi have been locked in an legal standoff over a soured financial deal.

Najib’s Setback

An arbitration judge recently ruled against Malaysia, «Sarawak» reported, which means 1MDB is likely to have to cough up a hefty payout to Abu Dhabi.

The two sides were close to reaching an amicable settlement, the blog reported, but the deal foundered amid demands from Najib Razak, Malaysia’s Prime Minister. Arbitration proceedings are almost always confidential in NATURE, making it nearly impossible to verify Sarawak’s reporting.

«The deal was scotched, it would appear, because Najib wanted the Middle Eastern fund managers (ie Abu Dhabi’s Royal Family) to lie and pretend that diverted and then stolen guarantee payments from 1MDB had indeed been paid to IPIC/Aabar, instead of being funnelled into a bogus BVI company, controlled by Low and his collaborators, with a similar name,» Sarawak said.

Meanwhile, free-thinking, liberal Muslim thought leaders and reformers are struggling to live and work in peace at home. Muslim-majority nations are either ruled by nasty autocrats, military strongmen or flawed and fragile democrats. In many places, to speak up is to find yourself dead or in prison. If you are lucky, you can go into exile – but perhaps not for long.

Escape routes to the West are closing fast. Islam-bashing has become the favourite sport not just of Trump but also of populist parties across Europe. Rants against Islam unite members of the ‘populist international’ on both sides of the Atlantic. As the far right looks set to perform well in elections in many Western countries in the coming months, expect the anti-Islam vitriol to get nastier.

Europe should indeed focus on keeping out Muslim extremists. But it must not ignore the plight of Muslim reformers who are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Speak up at home, and they are likely to be branded ‘kafir’ (unbeliever). Head for shelter abroad, and they turn into potential troublemakers or even terrorists.

“Space for freedom of expression has been shrinking in the Muslim world,” says Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand’s former foreign minister and a much-respected former secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“Muslim intellectuals cannot pursue their examination of laws and principles at home… they have to do that outside the Muslim world,” he told a World Forum for Muslim Democrats meeting in Tokyo last month. “Academics have to migrate in order to do their job. Muslim democrats feel the space for exercising their role is being limited… they cannot visualize their future.”

The Muslim world is suffering from a severe democratic deficit. Muslims long for freedom, the rule of law and representative government, said Nurul Izzah Anwar. She is Vice-President of the People’s Justice Party of Malaysia, which was set up by her father, Malaysian opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim (who is still in jail).

“There is confusion about how Muslims relate to democracy and to the challenge of facing extremism,” said Nurul Izzah. Muslims have to deal simultaneously with “fanatic ideologies and kleptocratic regimes”.

For many Muslims also, the struggle centres on efforts to reclaim their religion from the stranglehold of Saudi-based Wahhabist interpretations of Islam.

“It’s a fight that is long and difficult. Wahhabism is a dirty word in Indonesia. It is considered to be primitive,” said Indonesian scholar of Islam Azyumardi Azra. Unlike other countries, Indonesia is not dependent on money from Saudi Arabia, he said. “Our flowery Islam is embedded in our local culture.”

Yet for all its traditional tolerance and openness, Indonesia faces the challenge of protecting its minorities. Indonesian police has opened a criminal investigation into Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as ‘Ahok’, for alleged blasphemy.

Ahok, a Christian, is the first member of Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese community to be elected as the capital’s governor. The investigation shows the authorities are “more worried about hardline religious groups than respecting and protecting human rights for all,” according to Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

What happens in Indonesia is particularly relevant given the country’s reputation as a role-model for other Muslim countries.

Muslim reformers and intellectuals could once find shelter and asylum in the West. And while many have benefited from such protection and continue to do so, extremists in the United States and Europe are making clear that Islam is their new enemy.

As the extremists gain traction, the welcome for Muslims will wear even thinner in Europe. As former Egyptian member of parliament Abdul Mawgoud Dardery told the conference, “We feel betrayed by the US and Europe”.

Tragically, such betrayals are likely to become the norm. The US President-elect is likely to side with fellow ‘strongmen’ in the Muslim world. Europe’s populists can be expected to be just as indifferent to the plight of Muslim human rights defenders and democrats.

But Europe must keep its doors open to those in the Muslim world who want change, reform and democracy. As Surin underlined, “Muslim democrats have to face a dual challenge: we have to fight extremism in our midst and Islamophobia outside”.

The leaders were condemning corruption, but they were enriching themselves. They talked about Malay nationalism but they were alienated from the Malay masses.
They were obsessed with the west. They were too accommodating to non-Malay sentiments. They were extremely slow in implementing national policies in education and language. We wereimpatient and angry about the plight of the Malays, their education, rural development, rural health. There was this huge University Hospital, but no clinics in the rural areas. There were schools with no laboratories, no libraries and no qualified teachers. We were very angry, disgusted and critical of the government. There seemed to be no moral foundation and no spiritual guidance. We turned to Islam to fill this vacuum and to look for solutions. (Zainah Anwar, 1987:12-13)

Religious and secular education patterns in such a way that pupils can both sit for the national promotional examinations which open the doors of occupational opportunity to government and private sector and receive a solid religious and moral foundation for life as good Muslims. (Nagata, J., 1984:92).

The future of our country’s colleges and universities is threatened by global competitive pressures, powerful technological development, restraints on public finance, and serious structural limitations that cry out for reform.
Our report has recommended strategic actions designed to make higher education more accessible, more affordable, and more accountable, while maintaining world-class quality. Our Colleges and universities must become more transparent, faster to respond to rapidly changing circumstances and increasingly productive in order to deal effectively with the powerful forces of change they now face.

Corruption-hunting Swiss and Singaporean authorities are targeting banks connected to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) strategic development fund; recently bringing Falcon Private Bank into their sights. The outfit has something of a record, losing its banking license in Singapore only a day before due to regulatory mishandlings.

But as Falcon is forced to close its operations, several other 1MDB-linked banks are still allowed to take business and being let off with minor fines. In fact, of the banks that were fined by Singapore’s monetary authority; UBS handed over $1.3 million SGD in punishment payments and DBS Group Holdings Ltd paid $1 million SGD. Falcon, meanwhile, paid $4.3 million SGD for their conduct.

Cracking down on banks

To catch-up on the foundations of the fall of Falcon, Malaysia’s current Prime Minister, Najib Razak, was the chair of the 1MDB fund. The state-owned investment vehicle is now under investigation across six countries, including the US, Singapore, and Switzerland, where respective authorities are looking into money-laundering and corruption by Malaysian government officials. The allegations are they siphoned off billions of dollars.

Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI) was the first Swiss bank investigated by Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) about the saga, but it seems attention has now clearly shifted to Falcon. This second private bank is owned by the Emirati International Petroleum Investment Co, based in Abu Dhabi, and its officials have also agreed to “cooperate with the OAG to help ensure a speedy resolution to the investigation”. This is the latest development in a year-long investigation, but so far only four people face criminal charges.

But can there be smoke without fire? Despite the Malaysian leader’s continued pleas of ignorance of the matter, the OAG might be unintentionally building a case around him – simply by picking apart his former associates and financial partners. Swiss authorities are currently questioning Falcon about a $681 million USD “pass through” transaction from an anonymous account of a Malaysian businessman. Although the Swiss authorities are not releasing any details of where this money went, the $681million USD is the exact amount seen in Najib’s personal account before Malaysia’s 2013 general election. The beleaguered leader has stated he returned $620 million USD of what he says was a political donation, but the remaining $61 million USD is still unaccounted for.

Although the Swiss authorities are not releasing any details of where this money went, the $681million USD is the exact amount seen in Najib’s personal account before Malaysia’s 2013 general election. The beleaguered leader has stated he returned $620 million USD of what he says was a political donation, but the remaining $61 million USD is still unaccounted for.

The fallout

The criminal charges that Falcon faces relate to the investigation by Switzerland’s financial watchdog, FINMA buht many of their actions are under the spotlight. For their part the OAG points out that “the information suggests that the offences of money laundering currently under investigation in (the) 1MDB case could have been prevented had the Falcon Private Bank Ltd been adequately organised”.

Falcon have responded to the charges saying that “based on the findings of the regulators, Falcon Private Bank has initiated additional measures to prevent future issues.” However, this will not stop FINMA from taking $2.56 million USD of illegal profits they have earned, as well as raising charges against two unnamed former Falcon official. Though Najib continues to cover his tracks and deny responsibility for the 1MDB scandal, his inner circle of banks and associates are facing criminal persecution from some of the highest international authorities. What will emerge next?

Representatives of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio contacted the Justice Department in July immediately after the government alleged some money embezzled from a Malaysian government fund financed his film The Wolf of Wall Street, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

The comments are the first from DiCaprio’s camp since the Justice Department filed civil forfeiture suits against luxury real estate, artwork and other assets purchased with allegedly stolen funds from 1Malaysia Development by a cast of characters including Malaysian financier Jho Low, who was a friend of DiCaprio’s.

They also come in the wake of protests from Switzerland’s Bruno Manser Fund, a rainforest charity, which called earlier this month for DiCaprio to explain his ties to the alleged fraud or step down from his position as a United Nations “Messenger of Peace for Climate Change”.

DiCaprio’s spokesman said the star was seeking to determine whether he or his charitable foundation had “received any gifts or charitable donations directly or indirectly related to these parties, and if so, to return those gifts or donations as soon as possible”.

“Both DiCaprio and LDF (Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation) continue to be entirely supportive of all efforts to assure that justice is done in this matter,” the spokesman said. “DiCaprio is grateful for the lead and instruction of the government on how to accomplish this.”

DiCaprio has been tangled in the 1MDB affair because of his association with Mr Low and others connected to the film, including Riza Aziz, co-founder of Red Granite Pictures and stepson of the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak.

DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese were interested in making The Wolf of Wall Street for years before Red Granite agreed to help invest in the risky R-rated project. DiCaprio’s relationship with Mr Low and Mr Aziz grew from there.

Mr Aziz and Red Granite have denied any wrongdoing and said they believed the funding they received was from a legitimate business partner in the Middle East. Mr Najib has denied wrongdoing and been cleared of any crime by the Malaysian Attorney General. Mr Low and his representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment and haven’t publicly commented on the allegations.

The Justice Department’s complaints refer to “Hollywood Actor 1,” who is DiCaprio, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

On July 15, 2012 — a few months before The Wolf of Wall Street began filming — Mr Low withdrew $US1.15 million at the Venetian casino in Las Vegas and gambled with the Hollywood actor, the complaint says.

Red Granite’s office is also in the same building as DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company, and the actor and Red Granite executives were spotted together at parties across town.

In late 2012, Mr Low and Aziz, and others connected to the film, gave DiCaprio a unique birthday present: the Oscar statuette presented to Marlon Brando in 1955 for best actor in On the Waterfront. The statuette had been acquired for around $US600,000 through a New Jersey memorabilia dealer, according to sources.

The men also spent time together and with others on the world’s fifth-largest yacht during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and were part of a New Year’s celebration in 2012 that involved a party in Australia followed by a ride on a chartered 747 to Las Vegas to do the countdown a second time, the people said.

When the actor hosted a charity sale at auction house Christie’s to support environmental causes in 2013, Mr Low allegedly used 1MDB funds to purchase two pieces of art by Mark Ryden and Ed Ruscha for a total of about $US1.08 million, according to the Justice Department complaint.

Mr Low also bought a home in the high-end Bird Streets area of Los Angeles very close to Di­Caprio’s home in the area.

While Mr DiCaprio and Mr Low were friends in the past, “they are no longer in contact and haven’t spoken in a long time,” according to a person close to Di­Caprio.

WASHINGTON – Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death was long anticipated, but it still came as a profound shock to Thailand. When it was announced, vast crowds gathered in towns and cities to weep and pay homage to their monarch, who had reigned for seven decades.

Thailand’s stock market has fluctuated, and the country has entered a period of uncertainty. Most Thais have never known any other king, and Bhumibol inspired great devotion during a time of enormous political and economic change. During his reign, Thailand was transformed from a poor country into Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.

Bhumibol was Thailand’s most influential political figure, despite technically being a constitutional monarch like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. Absolute monarchy formally ended in 1932, and what remained of it was endangered by 1950, when Bhumibol was formally enthroned. But he worked tirelessly to restore the influence of the palace.

During his reign, royalists, in alliance with the military, rebuilt the monarchy’s image. The king represented stability during a period of repeated coups and wars in Indochina, and the United States and other foreign powers embraced him. He exercised vast economic influence, with the Crown Property Bureau — reportedly worth more than $30 billion — controlling some of Thailand’s most valuable real estate and other assets. And yet he created a reputation for supporting and protecting the poor.

In the absence of strong governance institutions, Bhumibol was often called in to manage domestic political disputes, most notably in 1992, when the military fired on tens of thousands of protesters who had gathered in Bangkok. The king summoned the Thai junta leader and the leader of the protest to his palace in the center of the city, and on live television both men prostrated themselves before him while he demanded an end to the bloodshed. The junta pulled back, a civilian government was installed, and by the 2000s Thailand seemed to be building a solid and stable democracy. The king was touted as a force for democratic change.

But as working-class Thais, who had tolerated military and technocratic rule for decades, came to embrace the kingdom’s new democratic politics, they voted for populist parties that would shift political power away from the royal, military and political elites. Soon enough, Thailand’s elites struck back, and the country’s politics descended into a cycle of palace-endorsed coups, elected governments and violent street protests. Despite the threat of stiff jail sentences for lese majeste, Bhumibol increasingly drew criticism — on social media and occasionally even in public — after endorsing the 2006 coup.

Adding to the uncertainty after Bhumibol’s death, Thailand’s current military junta has said that the king’s heir, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, will not immediately assume the throne, because he needs time to mourn. In the meantime, the monarchy will be managed by a regent, longtime Bhumibol ally and former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda.

Prem is a divisive figure. Although he oversaw a period of rapid economic growth as prime minister, many poor Thais dislike him, favoring populist parties linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose sister was also prime minister until she was ousted in a 2014 coup. Many Thais consider Prem an archenemy of Thaksin, whose own government was toppled by the military in 2006. To them, Prem represents elites who would deny Thais outside the capital a voice in determining the country’s future. Moreover, at age 96, Prem may lack the stamina to manage the crown’s transition.

There could be several reasons why Vajiralongkorn is not immediately assuming the crown. For starters, he may realize that he is nowhere near as popular as his father and needs time to build public goodwill. Alternatively, the junta (and Prem and other Bhumibol advisers) may have forced the crown prince’s decision, because they fear his playboy reputation and reported friendship with Thaksin. Yet another explanation is that the junta is stalling so that it can maneuver Vajiralongkorn’s sister, the beloved Princess Sirindhorn, into power instead, even though there is no constitutional basis in Thailand for a woman to reign.

Bhumibol’s death further destabilizes an already unstable region. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is mired in a corruption scandal, while former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad recently founded a new political party that may ally itself with longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s party, despite Mahathir having once purged Ibrahim from the government. Until national elections, Malaysian politics will likely get messier and potentially more repressive.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte, in power since June, has sent shock waves across Southeast Asia by denouncing the U.S., inching closer to China and calling for the end to American-Philippine joint military exercises. Moreover, Duterte has launched a drug war that has brought on a wave of extrajudicial killings.

All Southeast Asian countries must balance their ties between China and the U.S. But Duterte’s threat to realign the Philippines is sending up red flags in other countries involved in territorial disputes against China in the South China Sea, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. Moreover, Duterte’s wild public statements have unsettled the Philippine economy, leading other Southeast Asian countries to worry about spillover effects.

Thailand is scheduled to hold a national election next year, having approved a new constitution in August. Many Thais hoped that the upcoming vote would put the kingdom back on a path toward stability after more than a decade of political turmoil. But, given the uncertainty implied by Bhumibol’s death, and the prospect of an unpopular crown prince eventually reigning, stability seems unlikely any time soon.